Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

All music videos are made up of a narrative or performance based around the artist’s music. These music videos are used to create and image, promote and sell the artist. In our music video we have decided to use both narrative and performance to fit in with the urban and rock genre of our song. Another reason we chose to incorporate a narrative into our music video is that we could show the emotion in the lyrics through the visuals.

In music videos there is usually and should be a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. The song lyrics tend to show a general feeling. They can also establish a mood or sense of subject matter. Some also have a meaning which can be heard through the lyrics; however they can contradict them as well. In our music video we have followed these forms and conventions by making the visuals in our music video match the lyrics. An example of this is when we used a long shot to show the artist throwing stones on the floor at the same as it says ‘you throw stones’. This clearly shows the relationship between the lyrics and visuals. It is a key line that plays a part in the visuals associated with the song.

There are other forms and conventions that we have followed and incorporated in our music video, for example the relationship between the music and the visuals. A music video usually uses the tempo of the track to influence the editing. It can also emphasise sounds from the track such as guitar and drum solos or any other instruments by foregrounding them. This is another convention that we have followed when we created our music video. You can see this convention mainly at the beginning and the end of our video. At the beginning the tempo of the music is slow and to match this we have less cutting/longer scenes, but when the chorus starts the scenes become much shorter and we have used more cuts. The long scenes and fewer cuts at the beginning of our video enable us to show the emotion in the artists face. In the last section of the video the tempo is more upbeat and this is where we hear the instrumental solo. During this part of our video we have decided to use more cuts to keep in pace with the music.

Certain types of music genres have their own distinct characteristics which they include in their music videos. The ‘rock’ genre usually has a lot of performance included in their video. To include this in our music video we decided to film the artist performing on stage. In our music video there is a section where all you can hear is the instruments, during this part we decided that the artist should do some head banging which I saw in rock videos such as Lil Wayne – On Fire. It can be said that we challenged the conventions of the ‘rock’ genre since we have not included the artist playing actual instruments.

Since music videos are used to sell the artist as well as promote the song it was important that we included a lot of close up shots. By using close up shots we attempted to establish a relationship and intimacy with the viewing audience. These close up shots also allowed us to show the emotion on the artists face, such as her sadness and loneliness, an example of this being when we showed the artist crying. Another way in which we showed the emotion in the lyrics through the emotion was through the editing. We decided to make the entire video monochrome to create a dark feel. A black and white music video is not a convention of the ‘rock’ genre so it could be said that we challenged the conventions. I think the image that we have created of the artist is mixed. In the beginning of the music video the artist looks innocent but as we progress through the video we see a scarier side to her. In our music video I don’t think we have used any conventions of the hip-hop genre, and since our song is a mix of hip-hop and rock I feel that we should have used the hip-hop conventions somehow.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

There is a link between my main product and my ancillary texts. I decided to only use 3 main colours when making my ancillary text. Since the genre of our song is ‘rock’ I thought red and black would be a good choice of colours. The black represents the darkness and rock style of the artist and video. I decided to us red simply because the song is called heartbeat, the red would represent the blood that flows through our hearts. The other colour that I used was silver. I used this colour because it helped to make the writing on my digipack stand out; it was a big contrast to the red and black. The silver and black that I have used for my ancillary text link with our video because our video is in black and white. If we were to use colour in out video it would not give off the same dark, sad feel that we wanted to give out. The way I have written heartbeat represents a heartbeat monitor which you would see in hospital; this makes it look more professional. One of the main conventions that I have used when creating my ancillary text is that I made sure the artists name was all in the same font to make her unique. I have created an iconography of the artist by using images where the artists image looks similar to that our music video.

What have you learn from your audience feedback?

From the audience feedback we gained it was clear to see that people enjoyed watching it and it didn’t bore them. Most of the audience feedback we received was positive, with people saying things such as ‘the video was very creative and professional’. A lot of people said that they liked the was the song showed the story behind it which is very important to know. This meant that our narrative captured what the song was trying to say. However someone did mention about the camera shaking. We did this purposely but maybe in the future we should only use shots that are steady. Someone said that we should have stuck to the conventions of our genre a little bit more. I believe with have stuck to it and tried to include as much characteristics from the rock genre as we could such as the performance on stage. The narrative we have included is a characteristic from the hip-hop genre. I think that if we added more conventions from the hip-hop genre such as cars and jewellery the music video would not portray the lyrics and match the artist’s image which is important.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Media technologies such as iTunes helped with the construction of music video. It allowed me to go on it and purchase the song I needed for our music video. Google and YouTube were also very helpful with the construction and research. I was able to use the internet to find out what the original video looked like and the artists image. I was also able to research other music videos with a similar genre and concept such as Lil Wayne – On Fire and Evanesence – My Immortal. Media technologies helped with the planning of the music video a lot. We used cameras and I even used my iphone to take images of locations that we were planning on using for our music video. These images were then uploaded onto a blog which allowed me to share my work with others. When doing the annotation of lyrics i used Microsoft word, this software program meant that I was able to make a table and made the work more presentable. Using the internet we were able to search for props. When actually making our music video we used a lot of media technology. Since I was not acting in the film i was able to film scenes such as the argument scene. To do this I used a video camera and a tripod to make sure that the shots were steady. I also did the lighting for the stage scenes; this allowed me to work with theatre lights which were very complicated. Once all the filming had been done we uploaded it onto ‘imovie’ so that we could edit and piece together our video. Even though I didn’t actually use the software to edit i did give input and suggestions. From watching others use the program I have learned how to use it myself. When the video was completed we decided to upload it onto YouTube and facebook to gain audience feedback, which helped to evaluate our video. To create my ancillary text i used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. These programs allowed me to edit the images by feathering them and removing the background, I was even able to download brushes which I used to create the background for my images.

Audience Feedback

To gain audience feedback about our video we made a group on facebook. This allowed us to upload our video and people would be able to post a comment. We also uploaded both our draft and final versions of our music video. This was another way we were able to gain audience feedback.

We also decided to get audience feedback by letting students watch it and ask them about the video straight after. By doing this we were able to monitor the audience that watched it, we made sure that the people who watched the video were the people we were aiming the video at. Someone said that they thought it looked like a real video which is good since we wanted it to look professional. They also though that the video was scary which is something we intentionally did, so that the visuals portrayed the lyrics. Overall the feedback we gained was positive, but obviously improvements could be made to our video.

Final version of ancillary text

This is my final advert





This is my final digipack

Draft of ancillary text

This is my draft ancillary text



This is my draft advert

Ancillary text images

These are the images i could have used for my ancillary text. I have only decided to use 3 of them. these images were taken by Lorena

Analysis of magazine advert

This magazine advertisement is being used to promote the artist, in this case Wretch 32’s CD. The main features of the advert are the artist themselves and the name of the CD being promoted. In this advert we can see that the artist’s image is placed directly in the middle so that he is the main attraction. The artist name also stands out since it is in black writing against a very light background, this makes it eye catching. From this advert we can also tell the genre of the music the artist is producing. By looking at the background you can see that his an urban artist because there are tower blocks. Also the font being used to write the artists name looks like graffiti. Another way in which the CD is trying to be promoted is through the use of other artists names, such as Gettho and Scorcher. There is also an image of the CD being promoted; I noticed this is a very common use on magazine advertisements like this. Important features that I need to include on my advertisement are the record company and where the CD can be purchased, also what day the CD is being released.

Analysis of Digipack

Even though Green Day is a band on the front cove of the digipack all we see is one member. This clearly shows us that he is the most recognisable and the main member. This image is only a sihollette of the artist and this creates a dark tone which complements the rock genre. His rock image is also shown through the instrument that he has got, which is a guitar. The guitar is in white which makes it stand out against the red and black just like the title.

This digipack follows many typical conventions that you would find on a digipack. For example it has a track list displayed on the back cover and inside of the booklet. It also has the ablum title and the name of the band/artisit written on the front cover. On the back there is a barcode and the logo of the record company. In addition there are links to the bands website. This digipack gives a bonus disk which is a convention of a digipack. The bonus disk is a DVD which shows the bands live concert. Another special feature that has been included is that the lyrics to each song have been wrote down inside the booklet.

It attracts the audience through its use of colours. The 3 colours used on the front cover of the digipack all stand out against eachother. The red makes the writing standout which is in white, it also makes the image stand out. You can tell that the audience that would be attracted to this product are between the ages of 15 – 25. Its easy to tell this since there is an image of the audience at on of the bands concerts.

Final version of the music video

Edited by Lorena & Siham
Filmed by Danny & Siham

Rough cut of video

Edited by Lorena and Siham.

Filmed by Danny and Heather

Conventions of 'Rock' and 'Hip-Hop'

The most obvious convention of a rock video is that they tend to be mainly performance based, sometimes with a narrative. If there is a narrative in the video it is usually shows a romance between a girl and boy or there will be some sort of action. The performance tends to show the band performing to a crowd or just playing there instruments to the camera. The mise-en-scene is also very important. For the props there are usually instruments which the band is playing. The setting is mainly dark and gothic and the band usually wear dark casual clothing.
The conventions for RnB/Hip-hop are very different. The videos conventions are that it is either narrative or performance base. The narrative usually shows a relationship between the artist and other people. The camera mainly focuses on the physical features of the artist and the artists possessions, such as their cars, clothes and jewellery.

By Danny

Synopsis

This song is about the pain and heartache that a female goes through, in which this is shown in the video. At the beginning of our video we will see a female starting off the song singing in a park, showing her pain and reminiscing of the pain she was put through by her partner. in this we will have flashback images of them arguing. The following scene we have the boy at home trying to turn the TV on but i doesn't work until he hits it. after a while he goes off to sleep but keeps on having nightmares of his girlfriend who turns into having an obsession with him and generates an anger toward him which he see in his nightmare. Throughout the video we see cut back clips of him tossing and turning constantly in his sleep; flashbacks of the couple together are seen in this stage. midway we see a complete different side to the artist (the girl) as she turns devilish and completely crazy to the point she follows him home and looks into his window while sleeping. Towards the end we see her crawling towards him up his bed whilst he is sleeping and then he wakes up to find her not there and it was all a nightmare.

By Siham and Heather

Summary of plan

The video needs to have a dark effect as the song is very powerful. The rock sound of the song suggests to us that we should create an evil image of either the artists or someone else in the video. This type of genre tends to be sad and it would be great if we could portray this in our video.

The song itself contains lyrics of heartbreak. We could use this to show the picture of the song. By this I mean we can create a story about a relationship break up between a couple. This should be quiet sad so we think we should show how happy they were before the fight and the argument that broke them up too.

However the mood of the song changes half way in to a more powerful base meaning that the pace of the video needs to be faster and edgier. For this reason we have decided that we need to add a twist to the story. This is where the concept of the boy having a nightmare about his girlfriend stalking him comes from.

The image we want to portray of the artist is very complex. First of all as in all videos we have to sell the artist so we have to make her look appealing to the audience. This can be hard to achieve as she has to show her sadness and heartbreak which may make her look less appealing and not star like.

However we can achieve a combination of the two by having beauty shots of her. By this I mean shots of her not singing just looking at the camera and looking like an artist. This should contrast nicely with the shots of her crying and then becoming ‘obsessed’ and stalking her boyfriend.

The video itself needs to portray the story but we want to make sure it can look like a real video by making sure we sell the artists image as well.

By Lorena

Summary of original video

From listening to the song and seeing the opening scene of the video you would think that it’s about terror and the heartache of the artist and her surroundings. However as you start to watch the video you see that it’s the complete opposite. This video is set in Nneka’s home town in Africa, and we see her performing in the streets with people walking past her and carrying on with their everyday lives as they usually would. Most of the scenes in this video show Nneka having fun dancing and singing. We also see scenes of children having fun and playing innocently. The lyrics and the visuals contradict each other in this video and that is not a convention you see being used much.

Summary of original artist

Nneka From Nigeria is a Hamburg resident, Singer/Songwriter Roots sensation Nneka is back following her highly acclaimed debut album 'Victim of Truth' which the Sunday Times in the United Kingdom described to be 'as good as The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill'. Even though Nneka sings more than raps, she names hip hop as her primary musical root and most important source of inspiration. Her lyrics reflect much of her history and life in Nigeria as well as her time spent in Western Europe. Her songs stress the issues of capitalism, poverty and war and are often loaded with moral and biblical messages and references. She admits she feels at home on stage performing whether to an army of fans at festivals or busking on the streets of London. Now armed with a growing reputation as a consummate live performer, she continues to tour and gig across Europe with the likes of fellow compatriot R&B group Styl-Plus, dancehall superstar Sean Paul, Seeed, Bilal and Gnarls Barkley at the same time working on the completion of her studies in Germany (Anthropology) whilst recording new songs.

By Siham

Summary of video and artist image/style

Video summary
This music video is based on the ups and downs of relationship between a boy and a girl. At the start if the video we see the girl in the park looking sad but not knowing why she is feeling like that. We then see a scene of the girl with her boyfriend having an argument and in the end they both walk their separate ways. Having seen this argument we now know why the girl is sad and depressed, this is shown more by the fact that she is in the park throwing stones and kicking leaves.
As we get further along in the video we see the boyfriend in bed tossing and turning indicating that he is having a nightmare, possible about his girlfriend. His girlfriend is looking at him through his bedroom window while he is having the nightmare, and looking scarily at the camera. As the boyfriend continues to toss and turn, flashing images of a heart will appear.
Towards the end of the music video we will see flash back images of the girl and her boyfriend, showing the fun times they have had together. However we then go back to seeing images and clips of the girl looking scary and coming towards the camera. The video ends with the boyfriend suddenly waking up from his nightmare and staring into the camera.

Artist image/style
The artist image has to convey is that of someone that is possessed. She needs to look like she is infatuated with her boyfriend. We can show this by having the girl stalk her boyfriend after they have the argument and walk their separate ways. The artist needs to look frightening but at the same time nice since there are two sides to her, which we see in the music video.
The artist needs to express misery and hurt. This can be done by the artist looking down when walking, which will express sadness. Also wearing dark colours such as black will help to express misery and hurt. The dark clothes will also give the video that gothic image that is typical to the rock genre of music.

By Danny

Animatic storyboard

Made by Heather Aromin

Target Audience

I believe the target audience for our music video is mainly teenagers who generly listen to rock music. However our video may appeal to a wider audience since it is of the RnB/Drum and Bass genre aswell. Because the song we have chosen is a Chase & Status remix the target audience becomes more varied.

By Danny

Annotation of lyrics

By Danny

Location

These are images of my bedroom. We used this location to film the bed scenes where the girls boyfriend is in bed. This is also where we filmed the girl looking through the window.

Images taken by Danny





This location is the school theatre, situated in Bishop Challoner School E1 we used this for performance scenes





This location is Albert Gardens Tower Hamlets, London E1, UK. This is where we decided to film the scenes where the girl is in the park. Also the argument scenes were filmed around there.

Images taken by Lorena

These are a few images to show the locations we used to film our music video.

Production Schedule

By Lorena

Storyboard

Made by Heather

Analysis of real music videos

Lil Wayne - On Fire

The first video I have analysed is called ‘On Fire’ by the artist Lil Wayne. The director of this video is Chris Robinson. Even though Lil Wayne is known for being a HipHop / Rap artist this song is of the ‘rock’ genre and follows its characteristics. Rock music videos are mainly performance based sometimes with a narrative. There are lots of instruments such as guitars and / or drum kits and they tend to have a dark and gothic theme. There are a number of ways that this music video has followed the ‘rock genre’ characteristics, for example most of the video is performance based. We see alot of the artist, Lil Wayne, and a rock band performing with guitars and a drum kit. A dark tone is created from the first scene of the video where we see a mansion which is overlooked by grey storm clouds. There are other ways in which this dark tone is amplified such as when a white rabbit changes to a black rabbit and when a black feather falls from the sky to the floor. These scenes not only add to the dark tone of the video but also create a gothic feel. When we see the artist for the first time he is in a room which is filled with musical instruments and candles. The candles, along with the stain glass window which is usually found in churches add to the gothic theme of the music video.

Throughout the song there are many examples of the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. An example of this is when the artist says ‘shes on fire’ we see a black silhouette of a woman dancing against a red background. The colour red could indicate danger which is generally linked to fire. During one of the cuts from one scene to another there is a glimpse of fire and whenever the artist tries to touch the woman sparks come off her. Further along in the video we start to see scenes of a woman dancing with fire in the background. This scene tends to be shown when the artist says ‘shes on fire’. Another example of the relationship between the lyrics and visuals is when the artist says ‘shes how as hell’. At this moment in the video we see a girl dressed in a dark angels costume with black wings dancing with flames surrounding her. However the lyrics also contradict themselves sometimes for example when his talking about hell and devils we see images of angels.

There is a link between the music and the visuals in this music video as well. When the video first starts the scenes are much longer, this is because there is no music. Once the music starts the scenes become much shorter and we get more cuts which matches the tempo of the song. Most of the cuts in this music video do not match the beat however there is one scene where we see the drummer playing the drums and it actually matches up with the song. Even though the cuts do not match the beat they do change to keep up with the pace of the song.

There are many close ups of the artist in this video because it is him that they are trying to sell. Throughout the video there are a lot of women displayed sexually with him which means that the record company could be trying to show that he is ladies’ man. In this video a rock image of the artist is being created, since this song is not aimed at Lil Wayne’s usual HipHop target audience. This music video is very different compared to most of his previous videos simply because it is a rock song. However it is similar to a video that the artist jus released call ‘Prom Queen’ which is part of the artist rock album.

The woman in this video are displayed sexually, for example the woman dressed in her underwear with black wings, to attract a more male audience. The camera is also mainly focused of the woman’s body and not her face. The record company has chosen to use the conventions of a rock music video in order to promote his current album.

Evanesence - My Immortal

The second video that I have analysed is by a rock band called Evanesence. The song is called ‘My immortal’. Even though Evanesence is a rock band this song is of the alternative rock genre. The characteristics are very similar if not the same as those of the rock genre. The video was directed by David Mould. The characteristics of the genre are that the video usually looks gothic and dark, we see the band/artist playing the instruments and that it is performance based. This video creates the gothic feel through the mise-en-scene. The setting is in a gothic part of Barcelona, and in the video we can see that the buildings are very gothic like. There are lots of dead leaves and old buildings. The dark mood is created because the video was shot in black and white. This amplifies the emotion of sadness, grief and sorrow.

The lyrics in this song are not really illustrated in the video; however the video does portray the emotion of the artist and the lyrics of the song as we can the band walking around almost emotionless and the main singer laying down lifeless.

The cuts in this video do not match with the beat. The song is very slow paced and therefore we have longer scenes and fewer cuts. The solo instrumental parts are in the last section of the video. Here we see the band actually playing their instruments, during this part of the video there are more cuts to match the pace of the music.

Since this is one of the slower songs from Evanesences album ‘Fallen’ i believe that the record company are trying to show a different side to the band. The image that is created of the band from this music video is showing us that everyone can experience pain and sorrow. This video is very different to previous videos by the band since is it much slower and calmer and less drums and guitars being played, it is mainly a piano that you can hear until the last section. This video represents a change of image because it is the last song that the band made together with their lead guitarist.

There is no reference to the notion of looking in this video nor are any of the artists on sexual display. This video just shows the raw emotion of each member of the band. There are also no intertextual references. This music video is mainly performance based which sticks to the convention to a rock video.